Catherine Marie O'Sullivan, in Hospitality in Medieval Ireland, quotes a canon called De Iectione Eclesie Graduum ab Ositio as having a line which says that a 'superior prince or scribe or an anchorite or a judge' (excelsum prinipem aut scribam aut anchoritam aut iudicem) should never be refused hospitality.
How could it have come about that an anchorite might be in need of hospitality? My understanding is that anchorites are defined by staying in one place.
How early is the canon?
The DMLBS (Dictionary of Medieval Latin in British and Irish Souces) has anachoreta (=anchorita) as meaning "anchorite, recluse". Niermeyer's Lexicon translates it as "anchorite, hermit". The earliest citations are from Bede and Alcuin, and they both seem to be using it more in the later sense than in the former. So in this context I would hazard a guess that they're talking about a hermit, a monk or holy person who has withdrawn from the world. Given the dominance of the ideology of seeking out 'deserts' in early Irish monasticism (Columba, Columbanus, Kevin, etc.), I wouldn't be surprised if this was really just a colourful term for a monk, but even a conservative reading could translate it as hermit or something of the sort: someone who had withdrawn from the work, but who would still be accessible to society and thus who could potentially travel. Hope that helps!